I first hit publish on my blog in September 2010. I had no plan, and no real purpose for it beyond having my own online design playground.

These days, anyone will tell you that to have a successful blog, you need to have a brand, a plan, a purpose, an understanding of your audience. It’s enough to make your head spin.

I’m not here to tell you that. What I am here to tell you is that blogging can be a very powerful platform for making things happen in your life. You see, by simply sharing my point of view and personal style, I began attracting the kind of work I wanted to do and the clients I wanted to work with. And any time I’ve wanted to make a change in my business, I’ve started with my blog.

I’m not going to tell you it’s easy. Blogging regularly takes time and dedication, and you will often feel like you’re not getting anywhere with it. It’s hard to choose blogging when a paying client is waiting on you.

So how do you make it happen?

For me, it comes down to two things: make it non-negotiable, and accept imperfection.

If you only feel comfortable setting aside an hour each week for blogging, then do that, and make the most of your hour. Make it a recurring task on your to-do list, and cross it off before you do anything else. Otherwise, it’s too easy to get caught up in client work until you’re too exhausted to blog.

But I think our biggest barrier to blogging isn’t time — it’s ourselves. We put a lot of pressure on ourselves to publish perfect content. But if there’s anything I’ve learned in almost five years of blogging, it’s that our work still has value even when it’s not perfect. It’s OK for your blog to be a work in progress — that’s how you improve. When you’re tempted to say that you aren’t feeling it today, I encourage you to move forward anyway.

Lisa Butler is a web designer, developer, and blogger at Elembee.com. She offers straightforward web guidance for making it happen online. When she’s not sleeping in or working from her studio in Tulsa, OK, you can find her at the dog park with her dog Dobby (yes, like the house elf from Harry Potter), or with her bags packed for her next adventure.